Departure

Since Chi Feng wished to use his body of a Saint to secure a glimmer of hope for the remnants of the Barbarians in this Land of Utter Darkness, Li Qingyan, as his enemy, naturally had to shatter his design. Rooting them out entirely was the greatest respect one could show an enemy. Chi Feng's corpse was instantly engulfed in flames, turning the chaotic Source Qi around it violent and wild. A quarter of an hour later, the Barbarian King, Chi Feng, dissolved completely from the world at the very heart of the Sacred City he had built. For a time, the three of them stood in silence. To be honest, despite having had few dealings with him, Xu Yuan actually held considerable admiration for this Barbarian Heterodox King. Even standing on opposing sides did nothing to diminish his respect for him. His brilliance, his strategy, and his ideals held steadfast unto death. Had the Cloud Qi Bomb—a weapon that commanded the weather itself—not emerged on the northern front, the imperial court and sects of Great Yan, with their combined army of six hundred thousand, might truly have suffered utter defeat, their rear cut off by the heavens-sent blizzard. Heaven's timing and the terrain had both been in his grasp; only the unity of men had fallen short. Otherwise, Chi Feng might truly have broken free from being a mere pawn to become a player on the board of this world. Of course, without the emergence of the Cloud Qi Bomb, there was no telling whether those two old men in the Imperial Capital would have launched this war of extermination in the first place. Still, admiration was admiration, but looting the corpse was still a must. After all, admiration could not put food on the table. Though he was wealthy now, who would ever complain about having too much money? Amid the silence of the two women, Xu Yuan slowly bent down and picked up the Sumeru ring that belonged to the Barbarian King. It was scalding hot, but the formation runes upon it had not been damaged. As an Origin Realm expert, the chest-bound princess was still able to control her Dao Charm with precision. Holding the Sumeru ring in his palm, Xu Yuan did not immediately examine its contents. As the chieftain of an entire race, the Barbarian King's ring had to hold all manner of supplies, precious herbs and ores, and perhaps even the Barbarians' archives and cultivation methods—an immense fortune. However, because he and Li Qingyan had slain Chi Feng together, dividing the spoils was a delicate matter. As he pondered, Li Qingyan spoke, her voice laced with fatigue. Unleashing the fire of Dao Charm just now had placed no small burden on her injured body: "Keep that Sumeru ring for yourself, Changtian." "Hmm?" Xu Yuan let out a soft murmur of surprise and glanced back at her. "You don't want it?" Li Qingyan replied softly: "The corpse of a Saint was far more valuable than any Sumeru ring. Since this princess destroyed it, I naturally cannot take anything else." Hearing this, Xu Yuan knitted his brows and did not speak right away. Over the past several days, the Barbarian King's Saint body had already decayed away; whether it was destroyed or not made little practical difference. Though he liked doing little and taking much, he did not care to take advantage of his own woman in such matters. Owe too much, and in the end, the only way to repay it was probably with his body. Heh, just a joke. Seeming to read his thoughts, Li Qingyan murmured casually: "If you feel guilty taking it, consider the Sumeru ring a token of thanks for bringing this princess out of the underground." "You really don't want to owe me a single favor, do you?" Xu Yuan said. "I am Li Qingyan, after all." "Then what about that Reversed Origin Six Elements..." "That is what you owe me." "Tsk. Why keep such meticulous score between family?" "Hmph, haha..." Li Qingyan let out a soft scoff. "Put on your muli veil, go fetch that Chief Arbiter, and we'll head straight south back to the capital." Fingering Chi Feng's Sumeru ring, Xu Yuan hesitated slightly. "Don't you need to tend to military matters?" "..." The smile froze on Li Qingyan's face. She fell silent, and only after a long pause did she reply quietly, "There is nothing to tend to. No marching orders to give, no decisions to make. The captains below can handle things, and my presence would only serve to bolster morale a bit." Seeing the desolation in her eyes, Xu Yuan probed gently: "The soldiers... took heavy casualties?" "..." Li Qingyan pursed her lips faintly and did not reply. Cupping her hands toward Luo Xiran, she said, "Senior, this princess shall head back first. I leave Changtian in your care." With that, her blood-red robes fluttered, and her graceful figure dissolved into the dark night. Standing in place, Xu Yuan lightly rubbed the Sumeru ring between his fingers, letting out a soft sigh. When Li Qingyan struck down Chi Feng, he had felt the shockwave of that collision crash into the White Armor military array below. The backlash from the commander's heavy injury breaking the array was not devastating on its own, but to gain the power to contend with a Saint, every soldier of the White Armors had consumed three Jinqi Pills. The array's backlash instantly triggered the pills' violent side effects. Two catastrophic wounds combined. In a single breath, he had sensed the auras of over a thousand Beifeng White Armors vanish completely. And for them to vanish from the perception of someone who was still a Transcendent Realm aberrant ghost, there was only one possibility... Beyond that, nearly all the remaining Beifeng White Armors were severely injured. Although he had provided ample precious healing pills afterward, the number of soldiers succumbing to their wounds over these past few days would likely multiply several times over. And for those who survived, their cultivation would almost certainly never progress another inch for the rest of their lives. Li Qingyan's feat of slaying a Saint with an array of ten thousand soldiers would be sung across the realm, but as for those troops... Ten thousand bones wither to make a single general's fame. A commander's glory was built upon the bones of thousands upon thousands of ordinary soldiers—enemies and allies alike. Taking a deep breath, Xu Yuan glanced at the ashes of Chi Feng's cremated corpse. Any pity they felt for Chi Feng, who had given everything for his people, would be a desecration of the sacrifices those soldiers had made. Xu Yuan tightened his fist slightly, a faint crimson light glinting in his narrow phoenix eyes. In that single moment, certain truths suddenly became clear to him. Exhaling a long breath, he gathered his thoughts and sank his intent-soul into Chi Feng's Sumeru ring. Immediately, he froze. It was not that the contents were overwhelmingly lavish; rather, the ring was so destitute it was practically empty. A handful of spiritual herbs and ores, a few pills produced in Great Yan, the corpse and demon core of a spirit fox, and a few barbarian inscriptions carved on beast hides. That was the entire fortune of the Barbarian King. Xu Yuan parted his lips, instinctively looking in the direction Li Qingyan had left, then back at the scorched earth where Chi Feng had been burned to ash. He took a deep breath, and an inscrutable smile touched his lips. Chi Feng truly had been a fine king for the Barbarians... *** A day later, a Grade B military carriage drawn by a lion-eagle beast took to the air in the Barbarian Sacred City, speeding south until it gradually vanished into the darkness of the horizon. Watching the flying beast recede into the distance, two figures stood suspended quietly in the empty sky. Presently, a deep, middle-aged male voice asked with a hint of deference: "Marquis, won't you go see Qingyan?" "Heh." With a raspy, aged chuckle, Marquis Wucheng glanced back at the middle-aged man beside him, his gaze toward the horizon carrying a touch of fondness. "Haven't I seen her already? Besides, if that girl doesn't want to see this old man, why force it?" The middle-aged man hesitated slightly, then said in a low voice: "Still, that Transcendent... is rather peculiar." "Transcendent, my ass. He's just a little Soul Condensation brat." At those words, Marquis Wucheng's voice turned slightly cold. "From that face, he's clearly the third son of that old scoundrel." The middle-aged man's pupils shrank upon hearing this. "The reports from the officers below cannot be mistaken. There is definitely something strange between Xu Changtian and that Transcendent. Are you really going to let Qingyan take him along just like—" "En Sheng." Marquis Wucheng cut him off, staring in the direction Li Qingyan had departed, his tone tinged with complexity. "Some choices are meant for Qingyan to make on her own."